One Comment

The sole proven method of decreasing the suicide rate is enforced, long term treatment of the disorders that cause it. A number of naturalistic experiments support that idea. Short term hospitalizaton has no impact on the suicide rate.

The Air Force suicide program has held up well, and represents a model for corporate America. Employees and members of the military might be ordered into long term treatment to keep their jobs.

In the US, the FDA included a totally irresponsible black box warning about anti-depressants causing suicidal ideation in young people. The warning deterred the prescribing of anti-depressants to young people by non-psychiatrists. The increase in the suicide rate killed 100’s of excess suicide victims by decreasing the number in long term treatment of depression.

I have called for the resignation of the members of the review committee that favored this warning, the FDA Commissioner, and the secretary, Secretary Mike Leavitt. If I made a decision at work that assassinated hundreds of innocent people each year, I would resign.

An expert testifying that failure to hospitalize caused a suicide testifies falsely. False testimony is unprofessional conduct. All doctors have an obligation to report false testimony to licensing authorities. Unfortunately, false expert testimony has total immunity from civil liability, at the Supreme Court level. The expert cannot be sued for civil damages. Only a federal statute may reverse this decision.